These 3 Foreigners Raised More Than Rs. 10 Lakhs for Orphans in India. By Riding a Rickshaw!

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With the aim of raising funds for the education of 50 orphans in India, a group of three men – Bram Schuurman, Daniel Künzle, and Ernie ‘El Che’ Bergen completed a rickshaw run from Jaisalmer to Shillong.

Calling themselves the Kohinoor Khiladis, the trio covered 2,700 km in 12 days. They began on April 4 with just a rickshaw that they named Lily, 10 litres of petrol and a map.

They finished the journey on April 15 and reached their goal of raising $18,000 for the children who are currently being raised by the NGO named SOS Children’s Villages in Shillong.

After meeting at Sziget Music Festival in Budapest, the three men became close friends.

“Daniel came up with this idea. We wanted to do a crazy adventure. So he found the Rickshaw Run, a mentally and physically demanding 2,700 km journey through North India,” Bram told BuzzFeed.

The Rickshaw Run is organized in India every six months by a UK-based group known as ‘The Adventurists’. On realising that the run also involved a charity aspect, the trio started looking for something that would help children at a place they could visit during their run. According to Bram, there are 34 SOS Children’s Villages in India and the one in Shillong is among the poorest, which is why they chose to go with it.

The journey was an extremely difficult one, where they had to sleep on the streets some nights, while taking refuge with local people most of the time.

The three are hoping to raise another Rs. 50,000 through a crowd-funding platform before the end of June.

“The money will help the NGO fund housing, education, nutrition and medical services for 50 orphans during the course of one entire year,” NGO’s spokesperson told The Huffington Post. They also want to return for another auto run in the future with bigger fundraising goals.